Turkey’s Kurds : one step forward, two steps back

par Semra Polat,
vendredi 11 novembre 2011

After the earthquake which shook Van, the largely Kurdish region in the east of Turkey, on 23 October – and a new smaller quake on 9 November – the media was full of reports on the destruction, over 600 deaths and innumerable casualties.

But a few internet sites ran racist comments such as “Divine retribution” or “The terrorists got what they deserved”. These were broadcast the day after the first quake on Turkish television’s ATV channel in an investigative programme, Tatli Sert. The presenter Müge Anli said : “They hunt down our soldiers in the mountains as if they were shooting birds, but when they need them, they ask for their help. It doesn’t work like that, these people need to be given lessons.” By “these people”, she meant both Kurds from the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and the ordinary Turkish Kurd population.

In view of the gravity of these remarks, aired on Turkish television, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the Justice and Development Party (AKP), with the other political parties, issued a condemnation on 26 October, calling the remarks unacceptable and racist. To everyone’s surprise, even the far-right MHP (National Movement Party) joined the condemnation. Anli tried to save face by inviting people who would back her onto her show ; she said her words had been misunderstood and she’d had no intention of making discriminatory remarks. But this move to clear her name was bound to fail, seeing how many people had heard her on TV and interpreted her remarks in the same way as Turkey’s political parties.

Another first followed : Turkey’s 17 TV channels joined forces for an evening of solidarity with Van to raise money for the quake victims.

This is the first time the east of the country has received such support. It showed that Turkish views are beginning to change. It is only two years since the singer Ahmet Kaya, of Kurdish origin, was forced to flee Turkey : he had been nominated Best Singer of the Year and accepted the prize “in the name of Kurdish mothers” who had lost children in the conflict. He died in exile in France (and was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery).

Turks still feel uneasy about recognising the Kurds as a people. On the night of the joint TV fundraiser for Van, various Kurdish businessmen donated, saying simply that they, too, were from Van. No one, even the presenters, said anything about their Kurdish roots. But the fact that the fundraiser and political statement took place at all was an encouraging new departure.

In Van, feelings were divided. Some, mainly those who had voted for the AKP in the June elections, were pleased with the government’s support over the quake. Others remained sceptical for, in addition to cross-border operations against the PKK, the government began to target the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which has 35 seats in parliament, attempting to link it to the illegal KCK (Kurdish Communities Union), which is seen as the civilian arm of the PKK. As the scope of the arrests – more than 7,700 – became clear, BDP leaders publicly demanded government responses to these seemingly arbitrary and unjustified arrests.

BDP co-chair Gültan Kisanak condemned the interior minister Idris Naim Sahin for attempting to link the different Kurdish movements ahead of any charge : “Sahin is trying to link the KCK, PKK and BDP with the single aim of closing down our party. A minister accusing a legally constituted party in this way is hard to conceive in a country which calls itself lawful.” It was, she said, more like what happens in countries with fascist dictatorships.

Whatever the truth behind all this, it is clear that the BDP’s members have been elected in accordance with the country’s electoral rules, and the only link between the KCK and BDP is the Kurdish problem itself. The government’s “KCK operations” and attempts to close down the BDP show that it is now going back on its wish to resolve the Kurdish problem democratically. Voters who had hoped for a peaceful solution are powerless before these new events as warfare rages over the frontier with Iraq.

However dim the hopes of peace, the Kurdish and Turkish populations have a single message : they want no more of this war which has caused too much suffering already. Mass arrests that target democratically elected people can only diminish Kurdish representation in parliament, and with it the hope of peace.

Has prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan forgotten what he said on Turkish television (Kanal 24) on 20 October 2007 : “Put aside your weapons and join parliament” ? And that the KCK seemed to have listened to his invitation ? Erdogan’s change of heart and his linking of the KCK to the BDP do not send out hopeful signals for the process of peace that was once engaged – rather the renewed frustration of the Kurds.

Semra Polat works in the editorial team of Le Monde diplomatique’s Kurdish editions